Dire Wolves
by Mega Absol
Summary: Five kids ignoring their parents rule lead to them finding one of the greatest things ever.
1. Dire Need

It all started in the 1st grade. Five best friends were out wandering the woods. Despite their parents repeated warnings not to go in they did anyways. The smallest, a brunette, clutched the shorter blonde's hand. She had never been this far from home. Everyone stopped when the tallest blonde her a noise.

"Guys, did you hear that?"

"What was it? Do you think it was bear? What if it wants to eat us?" The short brunette practically burst into tears at the thought.

"Don't worry Rachie. I told daddy that I'd protect you." Rachie's twin brother, Noah, comforted.

They sound rang out again but this time everyone heard it. It was a whimper. Someone must've beeen hurt. Like the superheroes the 6-year-olds thought they were, they went to help. Instead of a human they found puppies.

"San, look." The taller blonde, Brittany, pointed toward a large dead dog a few feet away. "It must have been their mother."

"She probably died protecting them. But from what?" Quinn quieried.

"Well we can't just leave them here. They'll die and then all their mother's work would have been for nothing." Santana had always had a fierce connection to her mom and knew her mom would've died protecting her.

"Well, they're only four puppies. I guess since Noah and I live together we can share one." Rachel shrugged even though she really wanted her own.

"Wait! There's one more." Hidden the bush next to the dead wolf was an all white runt. "This one was meant to be Rachel's. Look at how small and cute it is, just like her." Quinn beamed as she handed her closest friend her puppy.

The rest of them just picked up any random puppy since they all looked the same. On the walk home they talked about how they were going to get them in their house and how they were going to feed them. They were on six they really couldn't ask their parents on the off-chance that their parent wouldn't let them keep the puppies. Soon the best friends sepereated to go home.

As the Berrys' reached their home they prayed that their dads weren't home. Sadly that prayer was denied seeing as one of them was home.

"How was your day, kiddos?" Their darker-skinned dad, Leroy, asked from the kitchen.

"Fine, Daddy!" Rachel called back. "We're just going to head upstairs to clean up beofre dinner."

"Okay, take off your shoes before going upsatirs." The twins barely heard him as they ran to Noah's room.

Which was filthy. Everyone made sure to tell him that everytime they set foot in his room. His socks looked like they were trying to escape and Rachel swore she saw something run under his bed.

"Noah you can not keep a pet in this room! Do you know how bad this will be for its health? The scent alone is probably burning its highly sensitive nose." The shorter jew ranted out. "Before we do anything we need to clean this room so it's in living condition."

It took two hours and four garbage bags for them to finish cleaning. They found a dead fish, a live snake, four moldy pizza boxes, and a flute with a condom on it. The two fell onto Noah's new bedspread in exhaustion.

"Hey, Rach?" Noah panted out.

"Yeah, Noah?" Rachel gasped back.

"Where are the puppies?"

The twins stared at each other for a second before hopping up to find them. They were so small, especially Rachel's, they could be anywhere. Their scouring was cut short by a high-pitched squeal downstairs. The children ran downstairs to find their puppies nuzzling their father.

"Noah, Rachel care to explain?" They only sighed in defeat they were so close.

"You see we were out in the woods." Leroy raised an eyebrow but said nothing. "And Brittany heard a noise that sounded like someone was hurt so we followed it. Then we found these wolf pups. Their mom died trying to protect them! You see how small they are, they would've died out there all alone!" Rachel yelled passionately.

"Rachie calm down." Her slightly older brother whispered.

The younger girl nodded while trying to hold back her tears. In the few hours that she's had it she had became more attached to it than anything else. Even her Barbra Streisand collection. Leroy was silent for a moment as he watched the puppies run to their humans. He had never seen them so happy about anything. The old man sighed, he couldn't take away his childrens' happiness.

"While I do not condone lying or you ignoring my rule to stay out of the woods we'll see what Dad says when he gets home." He spoke softly watching them beam so wide it looked like their cheeks hurt.

Of course when Hiram got home he couldn't deny how cute the pups were or how happy his kids were. So he gave in pretty quickly. But it was up to the kids to bath, feed, play, walk, and house-break them. Plus they would have to earn the money by keeping their rooms clean, keeping up in school, and doing chores. The twins could only hope that their friends had an easy time with their parents too.

While it wasn't easy for all of them to convince their parents that night the five best friends went to sleep with wolf pups next to them. If only they knew what kind of wolves. If only they knew these were dire wolves and that their bond together was permanent.


	2. Dire Help

2nd Grade.

It's been a whole year and the tiny pups have grown into strong wolves. Though they mostly spent their time in the woods they were always there for the five kids that saved them. They were there early in the morning when they walk to school, they watched them carefully during recess, they were there when they walk home, and they were ALWAYS there before they went to bed. Fellow students had learned to leave them alone ever since Finn called Brittany stupid and nearly lost his hand. Unfortunately not everyone learned from Finn's mistake.

It was recess time for second grade at William Mckinley Elementary School. Rachel was sitting under a tree waiting for Quinn. The two would always read together whenever one of them didn't feel like playing. But before Quinn could come out another kid noticed her. David Karofsky, he always liked to bully her and call her names. Recently he had stopped but he decided he had waited long enough.

"Yo Munchkin, where's your big ugly dog thing? I bet it ran away because it got tired of looking at your ugly face." The young boy sneered.

"Actually, Akemi is in the trees watching us right now." Rachel clarified while pointing in his general direction. She had got the name Akemi for an anime Noah made her watch once.

"Yeah right, I don't believe you." The evil boy continued to kick dirt into Rachel's eyes.

"Hey!" Noah and Santana screamed from the playground.

They were on their way when they stopped and just smirked. David heard a low growl behind him. Slowly he turned to see a giant wolf poking its head out from the bushes. Akemi let out a fierce bark nearly making the poor boy pee himself before he ran away. A gentle kissed was placed on the white wolf's head and a soft thank you was whispered.

Not a moment later Quinn came bounding out of the school with a book in hand. Her wide smile dropped when she saw Akemi, he only came out when something bad happened. The youngest Fabray ran as fast as her legs would carry her to Rachel.

"Rachel, are you okay?" The blonde asked in a panic while inspecting her best friend for injuries.

"I'm fine Quinnie." Rachel giggled. "David was just bothering me again but Akemi saved me."

"I'm sorry it took me so long but the school finally got the next book in the Harry Potter series. Look!" Quinn held up the book that read, "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" in large, bold letters.

-7 years later-

It had been a struggle the last seven years. For two of those years Akemi (Rachel), Max (Brittany), Neville (Quinn), Captain (Noah), and Leo (Santana) had to go into hiding. Due to an incident involving a baby, that had not been injured, a mother that had gone into shock, and a trucker, who lost his license for running a read light, there had been a temporary hit place on the five wolves.

Now they were all starting their high school careers. Earlier that summer Quinn, Brittany, and Santana had joined the Cheerios. While they were doing that Rachel and Noah had been doing their own thing, a thing that none of the girls knew about. Quinn had always feared that she would have to protect Rachel from everything in high school because she was different. Rachel was loud, loved to ramble and lecture, was very opinionated, and was sometimes blunt and obnoxious. So when ninth grade came she was prepared to do anything to protect her. What she didn't know was that she wouldn't have to.

While the three cheerios were setting up their lockers Noah and Rachel had just walked in. In their brand new varsity jackets. Everyone was shocked. Little Rachel Berry had somehow made the football team. A wide smile spread across the running back's face at the shocked look on her long time best friends.

"Rachie, you made the football team!" Brittany squealed. She twirled the small girl around in a hug.

"Yup!" Noah smirked. "My little jew was totally badass on the field. She was like a fucking bullet, shooting pass all the other guys."

"W-Wow." Quinn stuttered out. "That's great."

"Yeah Quinnie. Now Rachel won't need you to be her little cheerleader in shining armor." Santana smirked evilly at the small blush on the short blonde's cheeks.

"That's the whole reason I joined the team. I want you to enjoy your high school years, Quinn. I don't want you to look back and see nothing but you protecting me." The brunette placed a one arm hug around Quinn before leaving for class with Noah.

Quinn sighed pitifully and stared down at her shoes. No one knew that she was looking forward to being the one to protect Rachel. Ever since the wolves have been around Rachel doesn't seem to need Quinn's protection.


	3. Dire Emergency

**A/N: I'm back, baby. And with a whole new chapter aren't I great? Seriously, I'm sorey for waiting a million years to update but I can't when my muse hits me. This time it was watching The L Word. If you haven't seen it you should. Anyway, enjoy and I own nothing.**

For Rachel, it was weird to have people stare at her with something other than complete and utter malice. Instead, cheerleaders were smiling at her, guys actually saw her, and jocks were being half way decent to her. Well except for David and Azimio. That made her first day very interesting. At lunch the four friends sat at a round table in the middle of the cafeteria and talked about their frist day.

"So Hobbit, I couldn't help but overhear some of the other cheerios talking about the hot new running back." Santana smirked evilly. If there was one thing she loved, it was making Quinn jealous.

"Really?" A small blush spread across her cheeks. "I guess that explains why there were smiling and winking at me instead of glaring at me with their usual hatred."

"They only want you for your popularity." Quinn gritted, letting some of her jealousy seep through. If you looked close enough you could even see a tiny green tint.

"I know that, Quinn. I just like having people at least pretending to like me." She whispered while rubbing the pad of the thumb over the table. For a moment Quinn hated that she let her jealousy get the best of her and she hated to see her best friend look so sad.

"Don't be sad, Rachie. Q just doesn't want you to get hurt by those mean girls." Brittany tried to comfort the saddened girl but was only given a weak smile. Whenever Quinn snapped at Rachel no one could make it better except Quinn.

There was an unspoken tension in the group for the rest of the day. The short blonde had refused to apologize to Rachel for some reason. The two looked more depressed than Santana the summer Brittany and her family went to California. At the end of the day no one spoke, not a goodbye or see you later, they just seperated. It was as if the last 7 years hadn't happened. They didn't even walk home together after practice. Instead Rachel let out a small whistle and Akemi appeared before their eyes. Without a goodbye Rachel started her walk home.

It was like that for a whole week when finally the other three friends snapped. Noah hated seeing her sister so sad and knew that Quinn was the only one who could fix it. Brittany was sick and tired of the silent awkward lunches and tired of walking home without Rachel. And Santana had had it up to here with Quinn's moping. The three best friends came up with a plan and on one random day the two girls were grabbed and thrown into the custodian closet.

"Hey, let us out of here!" Quinn banged on the door as hard as she could while Rachel tried to make herself smaller.

"Not until you guys make up!" Noah called from the outside.

"This is fucking stupid!" The Fabray girl groaned in frustration.

Her frustration, however, slipped away when she saw Rachel's face. She looked panicked and her chest was rising faster than normal. But it couldn't be claustrophobia, she never had problems with small spaces before.

"Rach, are you okay?" Quinn took a step towards her but quickly stepped back when she saw Rachel shake her head viciously.

"No, I'm not. What did I do, Quinn?" Rachel asked with a quivering voice. Tears were already pooling in her eyes and it felt like no matter how much air she pulled into her lungs she couldn't breathe.

"What?"

"What did I do to you? What did I do to make you so upset that you're ignoring me?" Rachel's deep brown eyes stared mercilessly into Quinn's.

Quinn finally sighed and gave up. "Nothing, you didn't do anything to me."

"Then, what the hell is making you so upset with me?!" The tears finally broke throught their barrier and poured down Rachel's cheeks.

Quinn stared at her best friend for a moment and she couldn't believe what she had done. After years of bullying for everyone Quinn had been the one to break her.

"I-I'm sorry." The blonde said ina broken whisper. "I didn't mean to hurt you so much." She wrapped her arms around the smaller girl and pulled her close. For a moment it was silent.

"Quinn, I can't breathe." Quinn quickly pulled away with an apologetic smile, thinking she was hugging to tight. "No, I can't breathe." Her chest was rising faster than before and the tears hadn't stopped.

"Noah, let us out of here." Quinn banged on the door with all her might and threw her shoulder at it. But nothing worked. "Seriously, I think Rachel's having a panic attack!"

That got the door open without a problem. Quinn pulled her best friend out the front door and they sat on the school steps.

"Follow my breathing, Rachel." In and out. In and out.

Of course Akemi and Neville came out of the woods not a moment after they came of the school. It took a few moments but Rachel finally calmed down and her breathing went back to normal. Akemi placed his head on her lap signalling his relief that she was okay.

"Thank you." Rachel whispered softly to Quinn.

"That's what best friends are for." They sat in silence and bliss for another ten minutes before reality came to ruin in.

"Rachel, are you okay to play today?" Noah poked his head out the school door to check on his little sister before football practice.

"I'm fine, Noah."

"I'll walk you to the lockeroom, I better get there before Sylvester has a whole farm." The two girls laughed as the made their way into the school. Finally everything was back to normal or at least as normal as it could be. They did have wolves for pets.


	4. Dire Consequences

**A/N: Another update so soon which is great for the lack of love I've been getting. So enjoy.**

All five best friends were happy that everything was back to normal. Actually it was even better than normal. No one bullied Rachel, the Titans had won their first game in a decade, and somehow all 5 of them managed to keep high grades during the first rating period of school. Things were great, a little too great.

The Titans were at their second game of the season. Quinn, Brittany, and Santana were off on the sidelines cheering. They were down by 5 points, there was a minute left on the clock, and Rachel was on the bench. Five pairs of glowing eyes watched carefully from the bushes around the field.

"Coach, you gotta put me in!" Rachel yelled over the roaring crowd. This was her chance to score the winning touchdown.

"I don't have to do anything, Berry." Coach Beiste answered without even looking up from her clipboard. "Timeout!"

The entire team hustled over to the sideline. They looked exhausted and ready to give up.

"Coach, what are we going to do? If we don't get a touchdown, we're going to lose."

"I know that!" Beiste ran her fingers through her hair and looked over her plays again. None of them would work, no one was fast enough.

"Coach, maybe we should put Rachel in." Puck piped up. "She's the fastest person on the team and she's so small that she'll just slip right by."

Coach sighed in resignation. "Fine, Berry you're in."

Everyone knew which play they were doing, it was the only on that even had the slightest chance of making them win.

"Hut hut!" Finn yelled but instead of throwing it he turned and ran the wrong way.

The opposing team laughed and let him keep running. What they didn't expect was for him to throw it the Puckerman who had safely made it pass their defenses. The entire team ran towards him and completely ignored the small player making her to the end zone. Right before he was tackled to the ground he threw it perfectly to Rachel. As soon as the ball landed in her hands she took of like a bullet. The other team had already gotten up and started to chase her. She was so close she could almost taste victory. Just ten more yards, five, two, one. She had did it, she made it all the way to the end zone. Before she could celebrate, however, a large football player tackled her to the ground. She could hear people yelling and someone blowing a whistle as well as a familiar growl. Then everything went black.

Akemi and Quinn both hovered over an unconscious Rachel. It took a minute to stop him from biting off the guy's leg. Gently, Quinn slipped off her helmet and rested her head against her thighs.

"Rachel, Rachel wake up." Tears started to fill up in her eyes. "Please, Rachel. Wake up. You made the winning touchdown, you have to wake up!" One single tear slid down and dropped right onto Rachel's face.

Her eyelid twitched. A soon her eyes were fluttering open. A goofy smile spread across her face when she saw Quinn. The blonde girl let out a sigh of relief. She didn't know what she would've done if Rachel had gotten seriously hurt.

"Hi, Gorgeous." Quinn blushed for a moment before remembering the situation they were in.

"You had us worried!" She slapped the girl's arm.

"Ow! You're not supposed to beat on the injured." Quinn only glared in answer. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to worry you."

"You better be sorry. Now c'mon, you just won the game and I think it's time to celebrate." Quinn went to stand up but was stopped by a hand on her wrist. Rachel had a soft blush on her cheeks and couldn't even look her in her eyes.

"Or we can let everyone else celebrate and we can go back to your place for some ice cream and a Harry Potter marathon."

"That sounds great." The taller girl beamed and helped Rachel up.

While everyone else was off to Santana's house, Rachel and Quinn snuck off to her house. They laughed and joked into the night without a care in the world but soon what would feel like the weight of the world would be on their shoulders.


End file.
